SCB to soon have mixed land use zones

HYDERABAD: The Secunderabad Cantonment area may soon have mixed land use zones for the overall development of its civilian areas. This is being proposed as part of the master plan for the area to be implemented between 2014 and 2021 and it will allow usage of land for all purposes like residential, commercial and recreational.

As of now, there is no master plan for the Secunderabad Cantonment area and the civilian areas have been developing in a haphazard manner. With an intention to chalk up a master plan along with a development strategy plan and an investment plan, the Secunderabad Cantonment Board (SCB) had recently approached the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for help. The HMDA has gained experience by preparing several master plans for the erstwhile Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda), extended Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) and the core city in the past decade.

Before marking land use in the master plan, independent market surveys would be carried out to find out the demands for various lands such as housing, commercial, retail, office space and light industrial usages, official source said. The cantonment area is spread over 40 square kilometres with about 10,000 acres of vacant land. In the entire area, around 27% is private land and the rest is either government or defence land.

Official sources said the master plan would include demographic profile, overview of natural features by satellite imagery, soil characteristics and existing economic activities in and around the Cantonment area which can trigger development. The plan would also make an inventory of infrastructure development initiatives which were already taken up by various agencies.

“The land uses are useful mainly for private land and government land for development and road network is crucial for the entire area (including defence land).

As part of the plan, assessment of transport connectivity in terms of road network, public transit, rail network, linkages to airport near central business district and city centre etc

and identification of bottlenecks in each sector will be done,” a senior planning officer of HMDA said.

According to officials, it has been decided to identify important corridors crucial for overall development of the areas. The master plan would also assess the existing and proposed infrastructure in the area and social infrastructure like health, education and amenities including eSeva centres, railway and bus reservation centres, banks, post offices, revenue and registration offices etc.

When contacted, SCB chief executive officer Sujatha Gupta said: the request for proposal would be called by the HMDA soon for preparation of the master plan.

“There was a proposal for Cantonment Development Plan in 2007, but it was not taken forward. Now, the SCB is keen on the master plan. Along with development, we want an effective regulation in place.”

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